Western Union boycott divides

Oscar Avila and Antonio OlivoTribune staff reporters

The resentment some Mexicans feel toward the money service that has become their lifeline is apparent in a flier making the rounds on both sides of the border. "Western Union, your fees are a rip-off," it says, showing the image of a masked bandit.

The familiar black-and-gold sign of Western Union is a fixture in Mexican towns like Nochistlan and immigrant enclaves in the U.S., a symbol of the popular yet polarizing mechanism through which workers send remittances to their families south of the border, a flow that totaled $23billion last year.

Now, the complex relationship between Western Union and its Mexican clients has taken another turn as a bloc of Mexican community leaders urges countrymen to boycott the company. Another faction, meanwhile, has teamed with Western Union to launch innovative job-creating ventures in needy towns, including Nochistlan, arguing that the company should be cultivated as an ally.

On one hand, residents in places like Nochistlan are grateful to wire-transfer companies such as Western Union for offering a financial lifeline to isolated places typically underserved by banks. But family members in the U.S. often grouse that the companies charge too much. For a same-day $100 transfer to Mexico, for example, Western Union charges nearly 15 percent.

The growing debate over the role of Western Union has split key organizers of the huge immigration marches held in Chicago over the past two years.

Liberal Mexican activists, including some labor leaders wary of corporate influence, joined the national boycott of Western Union last month. Those critics say the company has a social responsibility to help poor communities where it makes so much money and that its philanthropy lags behind the efforts of other corporations.

They consider that especially galling because Western Union had about $2.3 billion in revenues in the first six months of 2007, much of it from fees paid by immigrants sending money home.

But leaders of immigrant clubs, including those representing Mexicans from the states of Zacatecas and Michoacan now living in Illinois, want to work with the company to bankroll projects in Mexico. Many of those activists entered the immigrant movement as business owners and see the company as a willing financier for their ventures

"I totally agree with exercising social pressure, but I'm not sure if it should be as a boycott," said Efrain Jimenez, vice president of a Zacatecas federation in California organizing the Nochistlan projects. "Yes, Western Union has a social responsibility, but they have the right as a company to make money too. They aren't a charity."

Western Union officials say the demands of some activists are unrealistic. They say the company has been aggressive in its philanthropy, although that is a corporate strategy also aimed at defending its business against the emergence of banks and other competitors in wire transfers.

"We will continue to focus on serving our customers and supporting them in the best possible way," said company spokesman Daniel Diaz, citing about $40 million in aid given by the company's foundation to groups in 70 countries since 2000.

Western Union's business practices were under the microscope in the late 1990s when Chicago plaintiffs led a class-action lawsuit that accused the company and co-defendants MoneyGram and Orlandi Valuta, two other wire transfer service companies, of collecting millions of dollars in hidden fees. Western Union and the others eventually agreed to a $375 million settlement, which included the creation of a fund for immigrant organizations.

But in recent years, the company has started to win over even some former critics.

"The Western Union that I sued is not the Western Union company that is there today," said Chicago lawyer Matt Piers, who filed the lawsuit. "I think the company has woken up and realized that it's a smart thing to treat your customers better."

Fixtures in town

In Nochistlan, a town of 15,000 about seven hours by car northwest of Mexico City, Western Union and other money-transfer companies are fixtures near the main square. For example, customers can receive transfers via Western Union at the Guadalajara Pharmacy, a general store, as they stock up on groceries and other staples.

With about 300,000 locations worldwide, Western Union touts its convenience for out-of-the-way places like this. Even though some banks offer money transfers without fees, Mexicans are much more likely to use other transfer firms, for several reasons.

Experts say Mexicans often distrust the banking system -- many still conduct transactions strictly in cash -- and feel more comfortable at companies like Western Union that they know speak their language.

Western Union holds about 15 percent of the remittance market to Mexico, more than any other single entity, according to the Inter-American Development Bank. But banks and non-traditional senders such as Wal-Mart are making inroads.

In a show of goodwill, Western Union approached officials in Zacatecas, the source of many immigrants to Chicago. The two sides eventually agreed that Western Union would participate in the "3-for-1" program in which federal, state and local governments in Mexico match funds raised by immigrant clubs in the U.S.

As the first private partner, Western Union pledged $1.2 million and started its first job-creating projects in Zacatecas this year with clubs from Illinois and California.

The joint partnership in Nochistlan is paying for a computerized irrigation system in a cactus field that organizers hope will increase the yield. The growers hope to sell the cactus as a vegetable but also to make tortillas. Western Union also is helping to bankroll a storefront business that reassembles computers.

The workers in both projects are engineers who recently graduated from a technical institute in town. In the past, they would have to move to nearby Aguascalientes or to the U.S. if they wanted to find jobs, residents said.

"I am grateful that there are people who believe in us," said Manuel Avelar, 24, who is helping run the cactus project.

So far, the Nochistlan projects have generated about a dozen jobs. And Jimenez conceded that Western Union's total contribution will be less than 1 percent of the money raised for 3-for-1 projects in Zacatecas.

Carlos Arango, an activist in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood who is helping organize the boycott, said Western Union's contributions are "insufficient," given that the company reported about $1.1 billion in revenues during the first quarter of this year. He also downplayed the class-action settlement, which was paid out in coupons for future transfers, many of which went uncollected.

"In reality, that was nothing," Arango said.

Boycott is tough

Outside a Western Union store in Pilsen, activists pushing the national boycott huddled around Santos Tolentino, 75, urging him to stop patronizing the company.

Tolentino, who sends $500 every few months to a daughter in Michoacan, agreed to avoid going in for the day.

But later he said he likely would go back. "Yes, their prices are a little high, but what can I do?" he said. "They have a store near where my daughter lives, and it gets there very fast, without any problems."

The boycotters, organized by the Oakland-based Transnational Institute for Grassroots Research and Action, are demanding that Western Union donate $1 for every money transfer back toward Mexican community development.

As the boycott idea spread, Western Union unveiled a plan this month to fund $1 million in scholarships and training for immigrants. The company also plans to expand its 3-for-1 participation to other Mexican states and other Latin American nations.

The mixed feelings over Western Union were clear in May during an international immigrant summit in the Mexican city of Morelia, at which the company contributed $10,000 as a sponsor. As panelists spoke behind a company logo, Fabian Morales, president of a federation of Guerrero state immigrants in Chicago, said he feared that the boycott from his fellow immigrant activists could discourage increased financial contributions from Western Union.

"At least we are getting a little bit of help from Western Union. We should negotiate with them," Morales said.

Officials in Nochistlan welcome the assistance, not just for the actual dollars.

Luis David Ramirez, the town's economic development director, said Western Union has brought professionalism to projects typically organized by volunteers. Company executives, who inspected the progress of Avelar's cactus field last month, expect strict accounting and oversight, he said.

Ramirez said he also hopes Western Union's example, though limited, will encourage Mexican and U.S. corporations to offer their own financial support for job-creating ventures that will slow the exodus of immigrants to the U.S.

Jimenez, the California immigrant activist, said he realizes that Western Union has the same motives as any other corporation: good publicity.

"But I want to believe that they are sincere," he said. "If not, they will have let me down."

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Transfer fees, a little or a lot

Western Union's fees vary widely based on the amount of money sent and how fast it must arrive.

For same-day transfers of $100 to Mexico, the fees are nearly 15 percent. But for a more typical transfer of $300, the fees are about 5 percent and have dropped steadily over the years.